Backlinks - What Grinds My Gears

Have any of your seen that episode of Family Guy, where Peter has his own segment on the news where he goes on and on about what grinds his gears....This is my version...

Do you know what grinds my gears??

Forum Posting to Gain Backlinks Grinds My Gears!!!

You do not understand how much this drives me nuts. I am browsing some of my favorite forums and all I see is links in every signature line. What irritates me more is that links are not even related to the forum!! Honestly, I can say that I include my links in signatures lines on forums, but I do not do it to build backlinks, I do it gain visitors. The forums I participate in are related to my niche not to improve my search engine rankings!!

Link Exchange to Build Backlinks Grinds My Gears!

If you have a blog or a website, you know what I am talking about when I say that every morning when I check my email I have requests for link exchange. It drives me crazy. Link exchange does not raise your search engine rankings, back in the day they did carry more weight but not anymore. If your blog contains good content, I will find your articles and will most likely link to your post. So stop spamming me because I am not reading your email, I am not even visiting your webpage.

Directory Submission to Build Backlings Grinds My Gears!!

Directory submission used to be a great way to build backlinks and they were well respected by the search engines. Wake up people, it is not the 90's anymore!! Who uses directories anymore in the first place? Do not submit your website to every single directory in hopes of raising your search engine ranking. You will be disappointed. Almost all links from directories are garbage and mean absolutely nothing. I would only suggest maybe DMOZ and Yahoo Directories, even those are losing their value. So STOP WASTING YOUR TIME!!!

Blog Commenting to Build Backlinks

Blog commenting to build backlinks really grinds my gears! I can not stand people leaving stupid little comments just so they can get a backlink. If you are going to comment on a blog in order to gain a backlink at least comment something useful. Do not put a one sentence answer. More than likely your blog comment will not get approved. Do not waste your time!! AND DO NOT MAKE IT SO OBVIOUS!!!

Testing Different Elements of Your Landing Page

Testing your landing pages is very critical when operating a successful website. Continuously performing A/B tests on your landing pages will provide you with more conversions which in turn means more profit. More profit is always good right? :)

Some people that do performing testing on their landing pages are not conducting the tests on all of elements on the website. Below are some of the elements that I test for.

Testing The Title of Your Landing Page

The title of your landing page plays a crucial role in your visitors actions. The title of your landing page should grab the attention of the visitor. A poorly written title in your landing page will result in the visitor leaving your website.  There are a few different elements you can check for when testing your title such as font color, font size, and wording.

Testing The Text In Your Call to Action

Improving your conversion rate on your landing page could be as simple as changing the text in your call to action. Use provocative words in your call to action to generate more conversions. If you need help with this, I recommend Words that Sell: More than 6000 Entries to Help You Promote Your Products, Services, and Ideas by Richard Bayan.

Testing the Positioning of Your Call to Action

Move around your call to action's in a few different areas and see which areas perform the best. When you determine which areas convert the best, use the top two and watch your conversions skyrocket :)

Testing The Style of Your Call to Action

Try different things such as changing the color and font used. You must not forget the size as well. You want your call to action to get noticed so in general bigger is better. There are exceptions to this however, you want to make sure that is does not look too tacky. I also prefer to use call to actions with rounded corners instead of square corners as I feel they could be interpreted as ads.

Testing Your Sales Copy

The object is to create something people are going to read. Do not make it lengthy. If you want to keep the same information but reduce the amount of text consider adding bullets rather than sentences for your key points. One of the best books I read regarding internet sales copy is Web Copy That Sells: The Revolutionary Formula for Creating Killer Copy Every Time  by Maria Veluso.

Testing Graphics on Your Landing Page

Graphics can play an instrumental role in whether or not customers convert. Play around with a few different pictures and see which ones lead to more conversions.

Testing Promotional Offers on Landing Page

Create two different landing pages but offer to different promotions on each. For instance, you could give landing page number one free shipping while the second landing page give a certain percent off.

I challenge you to find different elements of your landing page which effect your conversion rate. You would be amazed at the number of things that can be used to increase your conversion rate.

If you would like me to improve your conversion rates, I am available for hire on oDesk.com. Here are some other projects that you can outsource on oDesk.com.  Click the image below to hire me. :)

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<img src="http://www.tqlkg.com/image-5427416-10713421" width="126" height="125" alt="Improve Your Conversion Rates" border="0"/></a>

List of the 10 Best Free Classified Ads Websites

Free advertising is always nice. One of the best ways to get free advertising is through free classified ad websites. I listed below some of my favorite places to post free classified ads. I am not affiliated with any of these classified ad websites and am not making any money from the rankings on this list. These are strictly my personal opinion of the best classified ads websites on the internet.

Craigslist.org

This is the most popular free classifieds site out there that is why is ranked number one on our list. :)

Backpage.com

Backpage.com is ranked number two on our list of free classified ads websites. Backpage.com is Eerily similar to Craigslist. A little history on the company, they stated escorts could post classifieds after Craigslist removed their erotic section.

Oodle.com

Laid out differently than Craigslist and Backpage but still organized nonetheless.

eBayClassifieds.com

Coming in at number 4 on our list of free classified site is ebayclassifieds.com. This is the official classified ad section of eBay. No, this is not an auction site. Formerally, this website was kijiji.com but was purchased by eBay.

USfreeads.com

USfreeads.com is a very simple free classified ads website. I purchased an upgrade to my membership which allowed me to place unlimited ads. However, I do not feel it was worth the money. I would stick to a free membership. This allows you to have five classified ads at a time.

Adlandpro.com

Adlandpro is number 6 on our list of free classified ads websites. Their website is targeted for primarily for promoting online businesses, but they do have a few other sections as well. They do have paid programs, but probably not worth your money.

Hoobly.com

Hoobly.com is a well organized website. It uses your IP address to detect your location. It is somewhat similar to Craigslist. It gets plenty of traffic which is why it ranks number 7 on our list of free classified ad websites.

BestWayClassifieds.com

Number 8 on our list on our countdown of free classified ads websites is BestWayClassifieds.com. They claim to be the fastest growing free classified website out there. Whether or not that is true, Google only knows lol....Different looking website with plenty of traffic. The top visited listing almost 89,000 hits in a 4 month period. Not too bad. :)

ChooseYourItem.com

The majority of this site is different types of automobiles and real estate. They do offer free text listings of other items however.

ClassifiedAds.com

Wrapping our list of the top 10 free classified ads website is classifiedads.com. They have a nice layout. They have a nice search option. Gets enough traffic to be worthy enough to be on this list. :)

Be sure to check out my article on tips for posting ads on Craigslist. While the website states its use for Craigslist. The tips can be applied to all of these classified ads websites on this list. I also recommend reading this article about how to improve your conversion rate.

If you need help, I am available for hire on oDesk.com. Here are some other projects you can outsource on oDesk.com as well.

10 Tips for Creating Effective Craigslist Ads

Craigslist can be a great tool for generating leads at no cost, however, it can also be a big waste of time if you do not post the ads correctly.I have listed a few techniques I use to generate leads on Craigslist and other free classified ads websites.

Catchy Title
When writing your title on Craigslist, you must ensure that it sticks out in order to get more visitors. Throw in some symbols around your words. Something I do before posting an ad on Craigslist is to ask myself if I would click on this. If yes, it is fine. If no, revise it!

Keep it Local
This maybe common sense for some, but I recommend placing your desired location in the location box. This makes the Craigslist ad seem more real and are more likely to get more clicks.

Post Frequently
Classified ads are sometimes hard to find if they get buried below all of the new listings. The tip i have to prevent this is through posting daily. I really do not recommend posting more than 3 times a day per free classified ads website. Just remember quality over quantity.




Test Your Craigslist Ads
When you are advertising your website on Craigslist or any other free classified website, you should have multiple ads. You can even create specific URL's for each and test them to see which ads are getting the most visitors or more important which ads are converting.

Keywords at the Bottom
This is one of my favorite tips for advertising on Craigslist. This is espicially useful if you do not have any other text in the advertisement. Just list keywords at the end of the advertisement. Doing this will allow users to search and find your ad more easily.

Link Photo to a Form
This tip is great for capturing leads. It is pretty self explanatory. Post an ad with just a picture and your keywords of course :) Then create a link to a registraton page. Remember to keep it simple with just a name and email address. After that, you can gain more information from them. :)

Offer Discount Codes
Discount codes are a great way to get visitors to your website. Everybody wants a good deal. Why not reward visitors on found your advertisements on Craigslist with a 10% off coupon! This can be good for testing the effectiveness of your ads if you do not know how to use URL's to do this.

Use "Free" Section
If you offer a free product or service this can be a great way to gain leads on Craigslist. If you offer a free ebook or newsletter, this is perfect. You can make your money through affiliate links in the newsletter or ebook. Works great :)

Less is More
In general when posting on free classified ads website, the phrase less is more fits perfectly. You want about 2 ads a day on each site. Also, less for more applies to the ad itself. Keep it simple. You do not need every detail. The goal is to get them to email or call you or visit your website. Then you can sell your product or service to them.

Multiple Calls to Action
What is the goal of your Craigslist ad? Most likely, like I stated above, the goal is simple to get readers to either contact you or visit your website. Give the reader plenty of opportunities within the ad to do so. Do not just give one chance at the end! You could be missing out on a lot of money!

While this article states that the tips are for Craigslist, these same tips can also be applied to other free classified websites.

SBA Seminars Offering Courses - Free for Veterans

As some of you may know I serviced in the United States Navy for 8 years. I am always looking to better myself. One of my goals is to learn more about Quickbooks. Just the other day, my wife was browsing through the Sunday paper searching for coupons. She happened to glance at the classified section where she found a list of events in our area. She noticed a Quickbooks seminar near our house. Unfortunately, it was too late to register for the seminar because the paper was sitting on the counter for a few days.

I did some web research and found out more events that were coming up. To my surprise, these events that normally cost around $35 a piece were being offered free to military veterans. I immediately registered for ten seminars!!

The program contains many seminars which are aimed at helping individuals who own or want to own their own business. The majority of the seminars I signed up were about Quickbooks. There were a few seminars which did not contain information about Quickbooks such as Dealing With Difficult People and Working With Different Generations of People. Both of these seminars would be great not only with starting your own business but also as assets if you just want to improve your resume.

If you are interested, click here to find the nearest location where these seminars are being held. At the bottom left of the page, you can search by location. You are looking for "Find the Nearest SBDC Center".

5 Projects That Webmasters Can Outsource on oDesk.com

Owning and operating can be a very difficult task especially when starting out when you still have a full time job as many webmasters do. There are many tedious tasks that take up much of your time. So why not outsource these tedious tasks and concentrate on the larger tasks. I have compiled a short list of projects that you can outsource using oDesk.com.

Outsource Article Writing Services on oDesk.com

Article writing can be extremely tough especially when just starting as a new webmaster or a blogger. I used to spend the majority of my time writing each and every article for my websites, but now I use article writing services. I prefer oDesk.com because I can view reviews of previous customers who outsource their article writing services. I also love that companies bid to work on your article writing. You can even ask each writer to submit a sample article of their work. If you are not comfortable placing a large order, just get a single article and check the quality of the writer. If you like him, place a larger order. I usually submit a list of article topics and keywords I want to rank high for. The cost of article writing services on oDesk.com can range from $2 an article to $25. I usually spend about $7 an article for a good quality article.

Outsource Research Services on oDesk.com

I outsource research projects on oDesk.com all the time! I usually use them in conjunction with other projects that I use. For instance, I outsourced a project in which I asked that I get a list of all real estate agents that worked for a particular company within my state. I also asked the researcher to provide me with email addresses, address and phone numbers. I used this data to market a particular product I developed to the company. Research services are relatively cheap and can be a great investment. I usually just ask the bidders to submit a price for the particular project rather than an hourly rate. Depending on the amount of research needed, expect to pay between $5 and $25 possible more depending on how much data you are asking for.

Outsource Telemarketing Services Using oDesk.com

I absolutely hate talking on the telephone! Even with my own wife LOL!! When I seen that you could outsource telemarketing services on oDesk.com I was sooo relieved. :) My first concern when I seen this service was that English was not a first language for the telemarketers.  I am not racist, but I feel that the majority of my customers would prefer a telemarketer which spoke very good English. When you outsource telemarketing services on oDesk.com, you write a detailed description and state you prefer someone without an accent. You can also use Skype to interview prospective employees to validate their English speaking skills. I have a few tips for outsourcing your telemarketing services. My first tip is to include your phone number and a few friends on your calling list to validate professionalism and skills. My second tip is to offer performance based commission. This always works well with me. They do not make money unless you do :)

Outsource Data Entry on oDesk.com

Outsourcing data entry is becoming increasingly popular on oDesk.com. You can use data entry for almost anything you can think of. For instance, posting pictures to your websites Facebook page or Facebook pages. In the past I used them to input customer data into a CRM database. Most data entry clerks are also proficient at basic bookkeeping as well. :)

Outsource Email Handling Using oDesk.com

Sometimes it is impossible to handle emails in a timely manner. To be honest, I do not outsource my email handling very often, but I do on certain occasions. For instance, I may outsource for a few days if I know I have something planned like a birthday party or a vacation. If you do not have very many emails, it may be best to charge as a per email basis or you could charge a flat fee.

Outsource Adwords Campaign on oDesk.com

Adwords can become very costly if you are familiar with it. This is why I ALWAYS recommend to new webmasters to outsource their Google Adwords campaign. It is always important to remember to look at reviews for all prospective employees, but it is especially important when dealing with your marketing campaign as you can lose lots of money! Adwords specialists are often familiar with conversion tracking which will allow them to see which keywords are working. Ask them to provide constant updates and reports.

Getting Visitors to Your Website Using Evergreen Articles

I began my writing career on Associated Content about five years ago. When I first got started, I did struggle a bit as my articles received plenty of traffic for a day or two, then gradually the hits would go down for the page. I was determined to succeed on the website. I came across an article which informed me of different article types. After reading the article, I realized that I was only writing for current popular content which would explain my traffic drop off.

As I read further, I learned about evergreen articles. Evergreen articles contain content which people will always need and search. After I read the article, I thought about what types of articles would best suit evergreen articles.

Types of Evergreen Articles

"How To" Evergreen Articles

The first idea for evergreen articles were "how to" articles. People are always going to want to know how to do something themselves. It is important to choose an evergreen topic along with a how to article however. For instance, choosing a program or a cell phone that could be discontinued or extremely less popular in the future would work great for the short term as it would be popular but the popularity would soon fade.

Product Reviews

Product reviews are also make for very good evergreen articles. Visitors will come to your site searching information about a particular product prior to purchasing it. Your evergreen product review should contain unbiased information and contain pros and cons about the product. Ultimately, visitors are going to trust your opinion. Product reviews are good for generating income through affiliate marketing.

Writing About Past Events

Writing about past events is one of my favorite types of evergreen articles. Some people do not like this type of evergreen article as they feel there is not money to made from writing about past events. However, writing about past events can get targeted visitors to your website. As with any page on a website, you should have a goal for the visitors. You could get users to sign up for a newsletter or direct them to your online store which contains products that your visitors are interested in.